So You Want To/Mind Screw the Audience: Difference between revisions

{{tropeHow-To Guide}}

So you decided a simple storylinestory-line everyone gets isn't good enough, huh?

You want somthingsomething more complicated and interesting? Is that it?

This article will show you how to create an interesting storylinestory-line that will interest audiences and mind[[Mind screwScrew]] them at the same time.

First off, [[Dream Sequence|Dream Sequences]]s and [[Flash Back|Flash Backs]]s are your friends. They're good to use if say your character (or characters) are amnesiac or maybe missing a few memories. It's also good to help explain things prior to the story line. Maybe they're [[Dreaming the Truth]].

Second, be ambiguous. In other words, try leaving the audidenceaudience to figure things out. [[Ship Tease]] can work nicely if done right to make character relationships ambiguous. Also don't explain every little thing in the story line, that would make things too obvious. Leave some things to the imagination or the audience. Another thing to remember is that the audience still has to understand what's going on while having numerous theories and questions still at hand. You should let the reader [[Choose Your Own Adventure]], letting them interpret the storylinestory-line in several ways instedinstead of just the one you had planned for them. It can open new possibilities from Sub-Versions to Parodies or even another adaption or alternate retelling of the storylinestory-line (This can lead to a [[Cash Cow Franchise]]). [[This Loser Is You]] if you make the narativenarrative too confusing, or too mind screwing. The key is balance and paying careful attention to the story at hand, making sure you know what you're doing and making sure to make sure the audience understands your work, yet still has questions and theories of their own. Am I screwing your mind yet?

Third, [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]] can be good depending on the narrative. It can screw people's minds even more and let the audience wonder if maybe there's someone else involved in the storylinestory-line. Then again... What if there's [[No Fourth Wall]]? That would cause even more mind screwing, but try not to over do it.

[[Breaking the Fourth Wall]] and use of [[Author Avatar|Author Avatars]]s screw minds even more. Comments by you the author/creator can also [[Break the Fourth Wall]] as well as proideprovide clues or insight as to what's going on in your storylinestory-line or narativenarrative. An [[Author Avatar]] can work to provide a similar effect (if using an [[Author Avatar]] see [[Arc Words]]) but if the [[Author Avatar]] is a character in the storylinestory-line (Say, [[The Hero]] or maybe [[The Chick]]) that can cause not only extra [[Mind Screw]] value but it'll give you a chance to live an alternate life you've never/might possibly never ever live (See [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]]).

Something that will work to a similar effect of an [[Author Avatar]] is a [[Narrator Character]]. These characters act as a medium between the author, the reader and the story's characters if the [[Narrator Character]] decides to intervineintervene. They are not usually apart of the main cast and will only appear at certain points in the story.

[[Psychological Horror]] and [[Mind Screw]] can go hand in hand, making the genre even more confusing. Also see [[Through the Eyes of Madness]] and [[Mind Screw]] for more advice. However [[Mind Screw]] isn't limittedlimited to Psychological Horror alone. It can be included in other generesgenres if you do it right. I'll put a few genres and how to make [[Mind Screw]] work (but do not feel obligated to fallow all the writing. I'm just putting it up there as an example):

For Romance/Love Stories you could have one of the love interests have a [[Dark and Troubled Past]] or [[Split Personality]]. Perhaps one of the [[Love Interests]] or even the [[protagonist]] ( [[The Hero]] ) could have strange visions or [[Flash Back|FlashBacks]]s of the past. Perhaps they could see their future with each potentcialpotential [[Love Interest]]?

For [[Science Fiction]] you could involve computers and technology. Perhaps the computers could act on their own, or is there a [[Ghost in the Machine]]. Perhaps the machines are apart of a single consiousnessconsciousness and the characters must figure out how to stop it. [[Mind Control]] may or may not be involved.

For Mystery and Detective genres perhaps you could have a riddle solver who can't solve riddles or a villianvillain who uses mind-screwing tactics to play with the detectives mind. Hypnosis and [[Mind Control]] may also be one of the criminal's tactics which he uses to get away with his crimes (if not caught by the detective/hero that is).

You can also screw people's minds by making characters have psychological problems (whatever genre the work fits under does not matter), the most common being amensiaamnesia (See [[Amnesiac Hero]]) but don't limit yourself to that alone, giving characters other problems like short term memory or a [[Split Personality]] can also work depending on the storylinestory-line at hand. There are also other numerous psychological disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (you should have something in the character's backstory trigger this), Erotomania (what most [[Stalker with a Crush]] suffer from), Pica (this one isn't for those with weak stomachs...) and so on...

Am I screwing your mind yet or have I screwed it all up allreadyalready?

=== {{examples|Some good examples of [[Mind Screw]] include: ===}}

* [[Ef a Tale of Melodies]] - the mindscrewingmind-screwing moments are rare, but ''Tale Ofof Melodies'' has more of these moments than [[Ef a Tale of Memories]]

* Ever17 made [[ThisSerial TroperExperiments Lain]] forget(this aboutis theira writersgood blockexample withof the[[Science highFiction]] amount ofand [[Mind Screw]] merging together)

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